Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. (Building) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Purpose Existing studies demonstrate that contractors have not fully embraced the idea of forming relationships with their clients and providing superior service quality through improved project performance. Performance on projects has been poor and client contractor relationships have become adversarial as a result of the short term, profit orientated approach adopted by many construction firms. To improve client value and construction business sustainability, it is necessary that construction firms adopt a client- orientated approach to managing projects and this can be achieved through understanding the client’s needs closely. In line with the foregoing, the aim of the current research is to investigate South African public sector construction client’s perspectives on relationship quality between contractors and construction clients and their perceived shortcomings in service quality. Having this understanding will help contractors improve their service quality and their relationship with clients. This is likely to improve the competitiveness of contracting firms, thereby improving business sustainability. Methodology/ Approach A survey research design was adopted for this study. Adopting a semi-structured mailed questionnaire survey, 45 different construction client representatives, from 11 public sector organisations in South Africa were approached, out of which 10 client representatives of different roles and responsibilities responded (22% response rate). Public sector clients targeted were those who have mainly worked with contractors undertaking medium to large scale construction projects. The respondents incorporated project managers/ leaders and middle and senior management who have experience on construction projects. Initial contact was made telephonically and this was followed by the distribution of survey questionnaires through email. Findings Based on the responses from client representatives, the primary factors influencing relationship quality between client and contractor was found to be open and honest communication, followed by trust and fairness. The primary shortcoming in service quality was found to be competency, followed by a lack of open and honest communication. Competency related shortcomings incorporated the contractor’s inability to manage resources, time and cost on projects. The findings have also revealed that a small percentage of public sector clients are aware of the problems in service quality and have started to consider alternative procurement approaches to offset performance related risks and consequently, improve contractor client relationship quality and service quality. However, some public sector clients still support traditional procurement approaches and others are not knowledgeable on how ongoing challenges in relationship quality and service quality may be mitigated though adopting appropriate procurement strategies. Practical Implications Client contractor relationships are likely to improve when there is open and honest communication at all times and where there is a level of trust between contractors and clients. Service quality is likely to improve if contractor competence issues are addressed to effect better service quality through improved project delivery. Contractors engaging in open and honest communication with their clients is also likely to improve the service quality of contractors. To effect change it is necessary for clients to consider alternative procurement approaches to achieve better service quality and client contractor relationships. The consultant’s role becomes pivotal in ensuring quality service delivery and harmonious client contractor relationships. Originality This research adds to the limited studies in South Africa on the client’s perspectives on relationship quality and service quality. It bridges a gap in the previous studies, which have not investigated public sector clients’ views on relationship quality and service quality. Keywords: Construction Industry, Construction Projects, Contractor Performance, Relationships, Service quality / MT2018

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. Building to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Project management is no longer seen as just a management based approach but as a profession in its own right. It is, however, still common that individuals practice project management without, necessarily, being registered with the profession creating a crossing of professional jurisdiction. Existing literature or lack thereof indicates shallow investigation into project management registration and its impact on project performance. This report compares the project performance of registered and non-registered construction project managers in the South African built environment. A mix method approach was applied where the quantitative data was collected and complimented by qualitative data that aimed to solicit perceived factors that may influence improved project performance. Using a cross-sectional survey interview consisting of a semistructured questionnaire, data were collected from project management practitioners and professionals with the relevant knowledge and experience. The survey solicited 578 responses, with only 402 being regarded as complete survey responses. There respondents were sourced from the various professional councils that fall under the South African Built Environment. The results indicate no significant differentiation between the project performance of registered construction project managers and those who are not registered as construction project managers. On the job experience is considered a vital factor influencing project performance from a project manager’s perspective. Responses also indicate a variance in the perceived importance of construction project management registration. Despite the primary motivation behind registration having been expressed as “competitive advantage”, registration was considered most effective when used in combination with education, training and the understanding of project management knowledge areas. / XL2018

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / There is a noticeable prevalence of public resistance when implementing mega public sector projects in South Africa. This resistance is indicative of a lack of communication between implementers and the general populace. The aim of the study was to assess the regulatory framework of public consultation in mega projects in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design of consulting engineers, project managers, and municipality staff, using structured questionnaire was adopted. This was followed by case analyses of three mega projects in South Africa. The main finding of the study is that there has to be operationalizable regulatory framework which could be utilized to inculcate public consultation, its coordination should be articulated within the three spheres of government, this has to be monitored systematically. As such thereis the need to improve on the provisions and implementation of the existing regulatory framework among the spheres of government for better coordination and monitoring with the public. / MT 2018

A dissertation report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Building (in the Field of Project Management). School of Construction Economics and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / Disputes are a common characteristic of the construction industry, the underlying sources of disputes, most frequent dispute resolution techniques employed and the responsiveness of the industry towards the available techniques was explored including detailed literature review on disputes in the construction industry. Disputes can lead to the significant waste of resources on contracts; and they thereby undermine the concepts of sustainability and value-for-money in contracts, thus affecting the overall health of the construction industry. The methodology involved interviews conducted among professionals with experience, review of published cases, contracts and media reports on disputes in the construction industry. The scarcity of research in this field is discussed and the empirical work on the sources of disputes, dispute resolution techniques and proficiency in the industry was reviewed. It is concluded that contractual issues need more attention to deter disputes occurrence, while negotiation, arbitration and litigation techniques dominate the industry. The industry lacks professionals with dispute resolution skills, therefore workshops and stringent policies are needed to advise the professionals to acquire the skills for the development and improvement of commercial relationships in contracts. / MT2017

Thesis (MTech (Quality))-- Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / During the past decade, project management skills have become increasingly recognised as highly desirable for managers at all levels of organisations. Most people can benefit from the application of project management skills to some parts of their daily operations. The rapid growth of global markets and the introduction of total quality management, continuous improvement programmes and more recently, the drive to redesign business processes, all require some form of project management skills. In spite of the obvious benefits from project management, research has shown that more often than not, the traditional practice of project management does exist within organisations. This then may lead to service failure; thus impacting adversely on the efficiency and image of the organisation. This dispensation also applies to projects undertaken by the Eskom, which will serve as objective of this research study. The primary research objectives of this study are the following: To improve the quality of goods and services through the application of project management. To emphasise the importance of project management within an organisation. To demonstrate that project management, if used in conjunction with a quality management system, can improve service delivery. It is anticipated that the research will lead to an improvement of the control of processes and the overall service or product quality delivered by Eskom.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Business Administration, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005. / Project managers are faced with the challenge of matching skills to a task rather than merely assigning people to a job. If these skills are not readily available, the project may not be able to be executed with the desired level of quality and timescales may not be met. Nowadays, organisations need to respond faster to market requirements than before due to increased competition and rapid advances in technology. Coupled to this is the trend for human resources to be more mobile, as lifelong commitment to an organisation becomes a thing of the past. These two trends present modern organisations with the requirement that their human resources require increasing levels of skills, yet they are faced with the risk that these skills may be lost due to their mobility. Organisations, therefore, need to understand what their core competencies are and ensure that these competencies are developed such that the organisation retains an adequate supply of core skills. The aim of the study is to identify the core competencies and associated skills within an organisation and devise a method whereby these competencies and skills can be measured and duplicated such that core knowledge is retained and developed within the organisation. / M

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Labour productivity in South Africa is at its lowest in 46 years, according to Naicker. South Africa, when compared to its competitors in the emerging market, is less efficient and labour productivity is one of the lowest in the developing world; this does not bode well for the economy and the wellbeing of its citizens. ProductivitySA stated that productivity has an impact on several aspects of a country such as the economy and the society in general and is seen as “a critical driver of economic growth, employment, poverty reduction, and competitiveness” The Civil Construction Industry contributes 3.5% to the GDP of South Africa and it is faced with challenges such as an environment that is exceedingly competitive and organizations in the civil industry experience financial difficulties such as low profit margins. Furthermore, the industry is labour intensive and employs a significant number of unskilled and semi-skilled labour from the local community which is located within the vicinity of the project. The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to identify the factors that have an impact on the productivity of the civil construction industry of South Africa. A secondary aim is to utilize the factors, which have been identified, to create a productivity management framework with a view to improve construction productivity as part of the normal project management system. An industry specific survey was conducted, in the form of a questionnaire, to ascertain the perceptions of industry professionals regarding factors that have an impact on productivity. A literature study was done to create a benchmark which was used to compare the findings of the questionnaire. The top ranked factors were then used as the foundation of the productivity management framework.

Risk management (RM) should be seen as one of the most important functions in the South African built environment. Without the effective management of the risks associated with the industry, the noble vision of a sector that is efficient, profitable, and sustainable cannot be achieved. By embracing tried and tested policies that successfully mitigate risk, industry stakeholders will achieve many project successes, and will outlast any competitors that choose to ignore, or are ignorant of the fact, that the negative impact risk has on projects is inversely proportional to the level of RM employed. Construction Project Management (CPM) practices, realising that there are excellent business opportunities across South Africa’s borders, and faced with a competitive South African market, are engaging with developers and government entities involved in cross border projects in the hope of securing these potentially lucrative African projects. With this move into Africa comes increased uncertainty and risk for these CPM practices, and other project stakeholders. Similarly, CPM practices that have made the strategic decision to remain operational only within South Africa’s borders, are faced with a competitive and complex built environment and industry, made increasingly challenging by a weakening economy, exacerbated by industrial strikes, infrastructure deficiencies and a decrease in industry skill levels. This study reports on Project Managers’ (PMs’) perceptions of project failures and inefficiencies resulting from inadequate RM on projects, including the RM methodologies currently being employed. The study focused on perceptions of PMs who operate within South Africa’s borders, PMs that operate across border into other African countries, as well as PMs who operate exclusively within South Africa’s built environment framework. A study was undertaken incorporating qualitative methodologies via a normative survey. The survey was split into three main phases. Phase one employed the use of a pilot survey executed with the objective of further investigating the main sub-problems to gain more insight into the related issues and challenges. For the pilot survey, PMs were selected based on their engagement in CPM activities within South Africa as well as across South Africa’s borders into other African countries. Phase two of the main survey, with the sample stratum being the Association of Construction Project Managers (ACPM), was aimed at PMs within the ACPM who have engaged, or are engaging, in CPM activities both within South Africa’s borders as well as across South Africa’s borders into other African countries. Phase 3 of the main survey, with the sample stratum being the ACPM, was aimed at PMs within the ACPM who have engaged, or are engaging, in CPM activities within South Africa’s borders only and have not engaged in cross border activities. Survey findings identified the commercial sector and value of the projects undertaken by the practices, the level of risk associated with different client typologies, the link between inadequate RM and project inefficiency and failure, and the importance of RM on projects. Findings also identified that RM methodologies are employed by CPM practices, and that CPM practices generally endeavour to create a culture of risk awareness amongst employees. Further findings indicated that CPM practices may not always understand the risks associated with new industry sectors, regions or countries that they are considering operating within, and that that there is room for improvement regarding the effectiveness of current RM systems. Survey findings also indicated that risk is not always transferred to the correct project stakeholder most suited to managing the risk, and CPM practices are not always able to accurately quantify the costs associated with project risk. Furthermore, it was identified that CPM practices do not always undertaken risk assessments (RAs) at the correct project stage resulting in inadequate risk contingencies allowances, regular risk reviews are not always undertaken for projects, project pre-mortems are seen as valuable tools by CPM practices as a method to reduce future risk, and project post-mortems relative to ‘lessons learnt’ are not always undertaken. Conclusions outline the link between effective RM, project inefficiencies and project failure, as well as the increase or decrease in risk relative to ineffective or effective use of risk identification and management methodologies for time, cost, and quality factors respectively. Conclusions also outline the fact that although CPM practices generally understand the link between RM and project success, they are not always able to fully comprehend the risks associated with new industry sectors, regions or cross border countries. This indicates that without the adequate identification of risk, the RM process or steps that follow the qualitative risk identification process will have little or no value. This is indicative of the requirement for professional associations to consolidate risk data for industry activities with the aim of improving the level of RM industry wide. Recommendations highlight the importance of the compiling of sector specific risk registers, compiled by the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP) with registered member input, made available to all PMs via the SACPCMPs online database. Further recommendations include: the engendering, by senior management of CPM practices; a healthy ‘risk aware’ culture, by promoting RM practices aligned with best practice methodologies; the implementation of well balanced and formal RM systems throughout the CPM practice, with the aim of achieving effective RM without overburdening PMs with unnecessary documentation or ‘paperwork’; the attendance of risk conferences and workshops by all CPM practices, aimed at specifically identifying challenges that exist with RM and methods that can be employed to improve the status quo; the attendance of formal risk training courses, by all CPM practices, aimed at improving the knowledge base of PMs relative to effective RM, and the appointment of risk professionals, driven by the monetary value and risk levels of the project, to undertake the RM process and unburden PMs from the task, allowing PMs to concentrate on the other project knowledge areas.

The civil engineering sector of the construction industry as a whole has been suffering from mental stress due to a lack of stress management interventions, rendering employees vulnerable to burnout, poor mental health, and subject to injury on site. The rationale of this study is to explore the prevalence of mental stress in the civil engineering sector of the construction industry, and the potential causes of stress, vis-à-vis the effects it has on an individual. An empirical study based on a descriptive and analytical survey method was conducted among medium to large civil engineering contractors in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropole (NMBM). The study adopted the use of questionnaires, and a review of the related literature to effectively summarise and describe the collected field data. The sample stratum included civil engineering site agents and foremen. The salient findings include: high job demands, low job control, and low job social support are contributors to stress; site agents and foremen long for more time spent with family and friends; site agents and foremen are exposed to various physical, organisational and socio-economic stressors; site agents and foremen are displaying coping strategies unsupportive of a healthy lifestyle; there is a lack of awareness of stress management in the civil engineering sector of the construction industry; the level of stress experienced by site agents and foremen is rated as a lesser extent; the prevalence of depression among site agents and foremen is rated as a lesser extent; site agents and foremen are at risk of injury due to feeling stressed, and site agents and foremen are exposed to a range of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) due to poor ergonomics, and possibly stress too. It can be concluded that stress negatively affects the civil engineering sector of the construction industry by, inter alia, increased employee absence, injuries and accidents, higher staff turnover, depression, and lower levels of production. Furthermore, stress may lead to eventual burnout, rendering an individual at a significantly higher risk of developing physical health complications. Recommendations include: organisations to address the problem of work-family imbalance, by providing more time off to spend with family and loved ones. v Organisations need to promote and implement internal coping strategies, to assist those who are facing strain to effectively deal with their stress. More support from line managers to employees should be provided, as this will increase their resources in terms of job support, job demand, and job control in their working environment. Also, organisations need to promote teambuilding activities and exercise among their employees. Lastly, organisational policy and government legislation need to be revised in the long term, to provide for individual mental wellbeing, and reduced occupational stress.

The purpose of this study is resolving the service delivery backlog at the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements. The problem of service delivery backlogs is not one unique to South Africa but a problem faced by many developing nations. South African government in all spheres still faces a challenge of creating the good life for its citizen, even more on local Municipality as they are government closest to the people and interacts more closely with communities. It is two decades since South Africa became a democratic state and despite promises and efforts to improve service delivery to the public there still exist backlog in service delivery. In order to address the research problem and to fulfil the research objectives, an in-depth literature study was done on the current state and the role of the Department of Human settlements as well as the current backlog facing the department. Housing process and procedures, challenges, policies, finance, factors influencing housing allocation and delivery were also reviewed. Empirical studies were also performed by means of questionnaires with the community and officials in the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements. The literature and empirical study made it possible to identify causes, challenges and impact of service delivery backlog and to recommend possible solutions for resolving service delivery backlogs. These recommendations should be of value to the department and the country as a whole. In this study research methodology was focused on the research design, target population of study, sampling design and procedures, data collection instrument, data collection procedures, data presentation, analysis and interpretation. The major findings were identified in the study such as poor workmanship, delays in procurement processes, illegal acts, vandalism, poor planning, finance, project management and quality assurance. The study also offers recommendations such as revising procurement policy, source more funds from National, employ more qualified staff, involve community and all stakeholders in decision making in order to address the service delivery backlog successfully .All kinds of approaches that the government needs to employ in order to also improve its performance of delivering service to the public in South Africa were determined.